Quick Facts About the 2011 Denver Nuggets
- Nene is the longest tenured player, playing all nine seasons with the Nuggets since they acquired him in the 2002 NBA Draft.
- The second longest tenured player is Chris Andersen, going into his fifth season during is his second stint on the Nuggets. Andersen has played six of his nine seasons with the Nuggets.
- Andre Miller is also going into his second stint with the Nuggets.
- Andersen, Nene and Miller all helped the Nuggets make the 2003 playoffs, ending an eight-year drought.
- 12 players on the current roster were drafted in the first round.
- Danilo Gallinari is the highest drafted player on the roster, he was selected with the sixth pick in the 2008 Draft by the New York Knicks. Nene (2002) and Corey Brewer (2007) were each taken with the seven pick, ironically Nene was also drafted by the Knicks.
- If Wilson Chandler returns to the Nuggets this season they will have four players – all swingman – from the 2007 NBA Draft. Brewer (7th pick), Chandler (23rd), Rudy Fernandez (24th) and Arron Afflalo (27th) were all selected in the first round.
- Jordan Hamilton is the youngest current player on the Nuggets, he just turned 21 in October. Miller is the oldest at 35.
- The Nuggets have 11 players that are 26 years old or younger; they have three players who are 30 years or older. Nene is 29 and won’t turn 30 until next Sept.
- Brewer and Ty Lawson have each won an NCAA title in college. Brewer actually won it twice in 2006 and 2007 with Florida. Lawson won it in 2009 with North Carolina.
- Brewer is also the only player on the team that has won a title. Brewer won one while playing for the Dallas Mavericks last season. He only played five playoffs games for the Mavericks, and didn’t see any time in the NBA Finals.
- Six players on the Nuggets averaged more than 10 points last season. Gallinari averaged the most from the current squad, he finished last season averaging 15.6 points after splitting time in Denver and New York. Nene averaged 14.5, Afflalo 12.6, Lawson 11.7 and Al Harrington 10.5. Miller also averaged 12.7 while playing for Portland.
- Nobody on the Nuggets have ever been selected for the All-Star Game.
- The Nuggets will have 10 players that weren’t on the roster a year ago; seven that are new to the team this season.
- Last season’s opening day starting lineup was: Nene at center, Shelden Williams at power forward, Carmelo Anthony at small forward, Afflalo at shooting guard and Chauncey Billups at point guard
- This year’s opening day starting lineup is projected as: Timofey Mozgov at center, Nene at power forward, Gallinari at small forward, Afflalo at shooting guard and Lawson at point guard
INDIVIDUAL FACTOIDS
- Andrei Kirilenko has compared Mozgov to a bigger version of Anderson Varejao
- Knicks fans booed when New York selected Nene in the 2002 NBA Draft. Many wanted the Knicks to select Chris Wilcox, who was selected by the Clippers with the eighth pick. New York would later trade the rights to Nene and Marcus Camby for Antonio McDyess. Other big man selected in the draft, Yao Ming, Drew Gooden, Amar’e Stoudemire, Melvin Ely, Marcus Haislip, Curtis Borchardt, Nenad Krstic, Dan Gadzuric (2nd round) and Carlos Boozer (2nd round)
- Gallinari had the highest ratio of free throw attempts to field goal attempts (.611) among small forwards in 2010-11.
- In 2006, Brewer and the Florida Gators won the NCAA title by beating Afflalo’s UCLA Bruins 73-57. Brewer had 11, while Afflalo had 10. The next year, the Gators beat the Bruins in the Final Four, 76-66. Brewer led Florida with 19, while Afflalo finished with 17. Florida went on to win the title and Brewer was chosen as the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player.
- Last season, Lawson became the first player in NBA history to make his first 10 3-point attempts. He went 10–11 from behind the arc and finished the game with 37 points, which was a new career high. Lawson isn’t known as much of a shooter has a career shooting average of .406 from behind the arc.
- Andersen attended the same junior college as Cam Newton, Andersen spent one year at Blinn Junior College before declaring for the NBA Draft in 1999. Newton attended in 2009 after being kicked out of Florida.
- Andersen was the first player chosen in the NBDL Draft and was also the first call up from the NBDL.
- Harrington is the cousin of former Nuggets guard Dahntay Jones. He also played high school basketball at St. Patrick High School in New Jersey with Samuel Dalembert. Kyrie Irving of Cleveland Kentucky freshman Michael Kidd Gilchrist also attended the same high school.
- Fernandez helped Spain finish second in the 2008 Olympics. He has also won golds at FIBA World Championship and European Championship.
- Miller led Utah to the 1999 NCAA title, where the Utes lost to Kentucky in the title game.
- Up until last season, Miller had played 632 consecutive games. His streak ended after he was suspended one game for shoving Blake Griffin.
- Kosta Koufos has played for three NBA teams in three years. He also owns dual citizenship in both Greece and U.S. He attended a high school in Ohio called GlenOak High School. Other notable people that went to that college are Dan Dierdorf and Marilyn Manson.
- Kenneth Faried broke Tim Duncan’s Division 1 career rebounding record. Duncan’s previous record was 1,570, Faried finished with 1,673.
- Hamilton played better against the better competition in college. He had some of his best games against ranked opponents. He had 25 points and seven rebounds against Illinois, 28 points and eight boards against Pittsburgh, 24 and 10 against North Carolina and 20 and 11 against Connecticut.